July 9 - Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy Jig!

 We slept until 8 am this morning - I am sure that we got good sleep because we were back in our home state! We packed up quickly, gave the kitties their food and got on the road. We were Knightdale bound! I tried to snap some pics on our way down to Old Fort, but it was hazy and the sun was in the wrong position to get us good photos. 

We stopped in Hickory to charge briefly, just enough to get us home. Leon was able to get Bojangles for his breakfast - he said it was really good (country ham biscuits are hard to beat, especially when you haven't had one in months). We continued on I-40 all the way to Raleigh and ran into some of the heaviest traffic on our way through Chapel Hill and RTP (and it wasn't even rush hour). We stopped for lunch at Cava in Chapel Hill and it was as good as we remembered.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way to our house - it was Birch's birthday so I made his requested dinner and cake: chicken piccata and roasted broccoli, dark chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing. I was looking forward to getting back in the kitchen after so long!

We arrived home, where we were greeted by Birch and our cat, Zlatan. Both were happy to see us. 

The final drive of our trip - all that stuff behind us had to be unloaded and put away. That is always the bad part of the trip!

Driving back into our neighborhood

Our "we're so happy to be home" picture to match our "we're so excited to embark on this adventure" picture from 4 months ago.

Leon and Birch worked on unloading the car while I worked to get the kitchen ready/groceries put away so I could start cooking. Riley and his wife Jensen, as well as my parents, came over to share in the birthday dinner for Birch. I was a little concerned that I may have lost a step since it had been so long since I cooked, but everyone was happy with the meal. The cake was one of the best ones I have ever made!

Birch blowing out his candle

As you can tell, it was good to be home.

Birch's birthday cake

We had a great time catching up with everyone, but I was tired after traveling and cooking. It was great to be back in our bed and we slept very soundly that night!